welcome to store.sony.com. we apologize but this site is not yet accessible for our visually impaired customers. in order to provide you the best possible service, please call one eight seven seven eight six five seven six six nine for assistance.

Service and Warranty Information

Limited Warranty Term : 1 Year Parts & Labor

Weights and Measurements

Dimensions (Approx.) : 2-1/2" x 29/32"
(62 x 22.5mm)

Weight (Approx.) : 2.4 oz (67g)

Features

:

Circular Aperture

When changing your aperture to defocus the background, the light sources appear blurred. This ‘bokeh’ effect of the blurred background can be enhanced with circular aperture blades used in this lens. Conventional aperture blades have flat sides creating unappealing polygonal shaped defocussed points of light. α lenses overcome this problem through a unique design that keeps the aperture almost perfectly circular from its wide-open setting to when it is closed by 2 stops. Smoother, more natural defocusing can be obtained as a result.

:

Aspherical lens elements

Aspherical lens design dramatically reduces spherical aberration while also reducing lens size and weight. Spherical aberration is a slight misalignment of the light rays projected on the image plane. This is caused by differences in refraction at different points on conventional spherical lenses which degrade image quality in large-aperture lenses. Specially shaped “aspherical” elements near the diaphragm restore alignment of light rays at the image plane, maintaining high sharpness and contrast even at maximum aperture and can also be used at other points in the optical path to reduce distortion. Well-designed aspherical elements can reduce the total number of elements required in the lens, thus reducing overall size and weight.
Advanced Aspherical (AA) elements are an evolved variant, featuring an extremely high thickness ratio between the center and periphery. AA elements are exceedingly difficult to produce, relying on the most advanced molding technology to consistently and precisely achieve the required shape and surface accuracy, resulting in significantly improved image accuracy and quality.

:

Distance encoder

The distance encoder plays an integral part in ADI flash metering, which delivers high precision flash metering that is unaffected by the reflectance of subjects or backgrounds. The distance encoder is a lens component that directly detects the position of the focusing mechanism, and sends a signal to the CPU in order to measure distance to the subject. During flash photography, this data is very useful in calculating how much flash output is appropriate to the scene.

:

Internal focusing

Only the middle groups of the optical system move to achieve focus, so the overall length of the lens does not change. Other important benefits include fast autofocusing and a short minimum focusing distance. Also, the filter thread at the front of the lens does not rotate, which is convenient if you’re using a polarizing filter.

:

Accessories for creative shooting

The VCL-ECU1 Ultra-wide converter and VCL-ECF1 Fisheye conversion lenses can simply be attached to the front of the SEL-16F28 to provide ultra wide or fisheye fields of view. Both conversion lenses were developed concurrently with and specifically for the SEL-16F28 and integrate elegantly as well. The Ultra-wide and Fisheye conversion lenses offer single-focal-length image quality with superior portability.

Rated 3.6 out of 5 by 14
reviewers.

Rated 2 out of 5 by aggregate Dissapointing
This lens is only good for shooting in bright light, or on a tripod, or for landscape photography. In all other conditions, images are never sharp enough, or outright ruined. Images taken with SEL1855 are ALWAYS sharper. So I rarely use this lens now, and consider money spent on it wasted.
August 7, 2013

Rated 4 out of 5 by YaHoO87 Good lens for the price
This is a good lens for scenery and landscape, and for the price, its a good bargain, but as for macro, its a no go obviously because its a wide angle.
January 4, 2011

Rated 4 out of 5 by pulseHEAD Great compliment to NEX camera
The best things about this lens are that it's small and light. The NEX cameras basically feel the same whether this lens is on the camera or there's no lens on the camera - which is great, because it's no secret that size and weight are pretty important with a system like this. That being said, this lens has some (noticeable) distortion that is unlike other wide angle lenses. It seems that this is in the RAW format as well, so it might be that some software correction is being applied in the camera, or the lens construction is a bit different than other wide-angle lenses. However, given the size and price, you really can't expect top shelf quality. The center is acceptably sharp - corners are not terribly sharp. Once I figured out the limitations of the lens, I found that I could get great results when working within its constraints. Overall, I'd recommend this lens, but I'm hoping that a comparably sized fast (f/2 or better) lens in the 24mm to 32mm range (36 to 48mm eq) comes out soon.
July 20, 2010

Rated 5 out of 5 by holsteincowboy Awesome lens
Very happy with the images i captured with this lens attached to my Nex 5 .Tack sharp images Beautiful colours Highly recommended
July 22, 2010

Rated 1 out of 5 by Roc889 Very Poor Quality
This 16mm was the first lens I purchased together with my NEX-5 about 14 months ago and was always a disappointment, a great focal length that fails to deliver on sharpness. The optimum aperture for sharpness turns out to be 6.3 or 7.1 and is still not great, which is a shame because Sony has created a great camera and an outstanding sensor in the NEX series. Otherwise settle for sharpness in the center but blurry or soft detail at the edge of the frame. And even at those apertures it's barely acceptable. Lots of chromatic aberration and color fringing that, yes, can be cleaned up in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. I wound up getting the 18-55mm which I’ve used for about 9 months and turns in a much better performance at f8, both at center and edge of the frame. If you are into wide-angle lenses you may want to look into the Sony E 10-18mm.
July 14, 2013

Rated 3 out of 5 by BillWill Good for landscapes
This is a decent and inexpensive lens for landscapes and other wide-angle photos, but it's not a particularly good compact lens for everyday use.
I'd really appreciate a quality compact lens for my 5N, but this is not a good general purpose lens. I hope Sony comes out with a lens similar to the "pancake" Panasonic Lumix G 20mm F1.7.
My decision about which camera to purchase was a close call between a micro four thirds camera and the NEX, but I opted for the 5N because it offers better image quality, but the other offered more lenses and choice.
If / when Sony comes out with a good general purpose, compact lens it will have a very respectable lens selection.
December 3, 2011

Rated 3 out of 5 by Photospeaker Can it be sharper?
I excitedly moved to the NEX from micro four thirds and ordered the 5N with this pancake lens. I thought this lens would be like the Lumix pancake lens but it does not compare well in sharpness and color definition. Sony, please make this a better lens!
October 7, 2011

Rated 4 out of 5 by jadgl968 Great multi-use lens
Good day to day lens because its small so it fits in your pocket, but if you are taking a group shot, someone on the edge might get distorted.
December 3, 2010